CRH

Good day, and welcome to the CRH First Quarter 2026 Results Presentation. My name is Krista and I will be your operator today. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session.

If you would like to ask a question, please press star then the number one on your telephone keypad at any time. If you would like to withdraw your question, it's star followed by the number one again. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Jim Mintern, CRH Chief Executive Officer, to begin the conference. Please go ahead, sir.

Hello, everyone. Jim Mintern here, CEO of CRH. You're all very welcome to our Q1 2026 results presentation and conference call. Joining me on the call is Nancy Buese, our CFO, Randy Lake, our COO, and Tom Holmes, our Head of Investor Relations. Before we get started, I'll hand over to Tom for some brief opening remarks.

Thanks, Jim. Hello, everyone. I'd like to draw your attention to slide two shown here on screen. During our presentation, we'll be making some forward-looking statements relating to our future plans and expectations. These are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, and actual results and outcomes could differ materially due to the factors outlined on this slide. For more details, please refer to our annual report and other SEC filings which are available on our website. I'll now hand you back to Jim, Nancy, and Randy.

Thanks, Tom. Over the next 20 minutes or so, we will take you through a brief presentation of our first quarter results, highlighting the key components of our performance for the first three months of the year, as well as providing you with an update on our expectations for the year as a whole. We are also going to discuss our recent portfolio management and capital allocation activities and why we believe our superior strategy will continue to deliver industry-leading growth and value creation for our shareholders.

First, on slide four, some key messages from our results announcement. I am pleased to report a strong first quarter performance backed by our superior strategy, unmatched scale, and connected portfolio of businesses.

Overall, we delivered further growth in revenues, adjusted EBITDA and margin compared to the prior year period, reflecting good momentum from early-season project activity, disciplined commercial execution, and positive contributions from acquisitions. We remain focused on allocating and reallocating capital for higher growth as we continue to build a connected portfolio. In the year to date, we have agreed to divest of three non-core businesses for a total consideration of $1.9 billion, reflecting our relentless focus on the active management of our portfolio to maximize shareholder value.

We have also announced that we are investing approximately $900 million in nine value accretive acquisitions. The largest of these is an agreement to acquire Axius Water, further strengthening our position as a leading U.S. water infrastructure player, and I will take you through that in further detail later in the presentation.

We also continue to return significant amounts of cash to our shareholders. Our ongoing share buyback program has returned approximately $400 million so far this year. Today, we are commencing a further quarterly tranche of $300 million to be completed no later than the 28th of July. I am also pleased to report that the board has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.39 per share, representing an increase of 5% on the prior year in line with our strong financial position and policy of consistent long-term dividend growth.

Notwithstanding the current macroeconomic uncertainty, the underlying demand environment across our key markets remains positive, and we are pleased to reaffirm our financial guidance for 2026, reflecting a strong start to the year as well as the net impact of divestitures and acquisitions agreed in the year to date.

Assuming normal seasonal weather patterns for the remainder of the year and no further major dislocations in the geopolitical or macroeconomic environment, we expect full-year adjusted EBITDA to be between $8.1 billion and $8.5 billion, representing another strong year of growth and value creation for CRH. Turning now to slide five and our financial highlights for the first three months of the year. Overall, a robust performance and a good start to the season with revenues, adjusted EBITDA, and margin all well ahead of the prior year period.

Total revenues of $7.4 billion were 9% ahead, supported by good underlying demand, disciplined commercial execution, and contributions from acquisitions. This translated into adjusted EBITDA of $586 million, 18% ahead and a further 70 basis points of margin expansion, reflecting continued operational improvements and strong cost discipline across our businesses.

Turning now to slide six, and here you can see our growth algorithm which drives our performance year after year. As the leading infrastructure play in North America, we are uniquely positioned to capitalize on three large and growing megatrends, transportation, water, and reindustrialization, which we believe will support significant growth and value creation for our business going forward. Next, the CRH Winning Way, the force multiplier that enables us to capitalize on these growing infrastructure megatrends.

This is what really sets CRH apart. Through our Winning Way, we execute our superior strategy with discipline and focus, driving leading performance across 4,000 locations through a culture of continuous improvement.

As responsible stewards of our shareholders' capital, we leverage our proven growth capabilities to build leadership positions of scale in attractive high-growth markets. All of this is supported by four key enablers: customer centricity, empowered teams, unmatched scale, and our connected portfolio of businesses. Overall, our growth algorithm underpins our proven track record of consistent long-term delivery and our position as the leading compounder of capital in our industry. Now at this point, I will ask Randy to take you through the performance of each of our businesses.

Thanks, Jim. Hello, everyone. Turning to slide eight and starting with Americas Materials Solutions, which is supported by our strategic alignment with growing infrastructure megatrends. Overall, our business had a strong start to the year. Total revenues were 21% ahead of the prior year period, with robust volumes across all product lines reflecting good early season project activity, strong commercial execution, and contributions from acquisitions. In essential materials, first quarter revenues were 31% ahead.

Our aggregates volumes increased by 14%, while pricing was 1% behind, reflecting geographic and project-related mix effects. On a mix-adjusted basis, our aggregate pricing was 5% ahead. Cement volumes were 10% ahead, while pricing declined by 1%, reflecting regional variances across our operating footprint.

In Road Solutions, growth in both asphalt and ready-mix concrete volumes, along with increased paving activity, resulted in Q1 revenues 16% ahead of the prior year period. Let me take you through some examples of the projects that have been really driving good early season activity across our business, leveraging our scale, capabilities, and connected portfolio. In our roads business, we're involved in the widening and reconstruction of I-95 in South Carolina, supplying over 500,000 tons of asphalt and 250,000 tons of aggregates.

In the reindustrialization space, we're active in the construction of a large chip plant in Boise, Idaho, where we're supplying over 500,000 tons of aggregates and cementitious materials through our fully connected offering.

We're also participating in the construction of a large data center facility in Michigan, delivering over 1.2 million tons of aggregates in the first quarter alone. Of course, it's worth noting that this is the seasonally less significant quarter for our Americas Materials Solutions business. Looking ahead, and as the construction season gets fully underway across many of our markets, I'm encouraged by the positive momentum we're seeing in our bidding activity and our backlogs.

Next to Americas Building Solutions on slide nine, where our business delivered a solid performance in the first quarter, despite contending with adverse weather conditions in many regions and subdued new build residential activity. Revenues in our building and infrastructure solutions business were 4% ahead of the prior year, supported by positive data center and utility infrastructure demand.

In outdoor living solutions, while the underlying demand environment for residential repair and remodel activity remains resilient, a delayed start to the season due to adverse weather resulted in Q1 revenues 3% behind the prior year. Moving to International Solutions now on slide 10, where our business delivered a strong first quarter performance, supported by good pricing momentum and disciplined cost control.

Total revenue growth of 5% translated into 32% increase in adjusted EBITDA and a further 130 basis points of margin expansion, reflecting improved operational efficiencies and contributions from acquisitions. In Western Europe, activity levels were supported by infrastructure and reindustrialization demand, while in Central and Eastern Europe, activity levels are recovering following adverse winter weather across the region.

In Australia, our business continues to perform very well, benefiting from positive underlying demand, operational improvements, and synergy delivery from recent acquisitions. Overall, a strong start to the year for our business. At this point, I'll hand you over to Jim to take you through our recent capital allocation activities in further detail.

Thanks, Randy. Active portfolio management is a continuous process in CRH. We are constantly allocating and reallocating our capital to maximize value for our shareholders. As you can see here on slide 12, in the year to date, we have agreed three strategic divestitures of non-core businesses for a total consideration of $1.9 billion.

In addition to the previously announced divestiture of construction accessories, we have reached agreements to divest of our lawn and garden business, a manufacturer and supplier of mulch, soil, and decorative stone for $1.1 billion, and also MoistureShield, a manufacturer of composite decking. The divestiture of MoistureShield closed in early April, while the construction accessories and lawn and garden transactions are expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

Together, these transactions demonstrate our commitment to the active management of our portfolio and the reallocation of capital into higher growth, more connected businesses to maximize value for our shareholders. At this point on slide 13, I would like to provide an overview of our U.S. water infrastructure platform, one of our four key growth platforms which we highlighted during last year's Investor Day. We are a leading player in this attractive high-growth market, benefiting from resilient public funding and non-discretionary investment.

Reindustrialization and an aging water infrastructure network with significant investment needs are the key drivers of demand. With approximately one third of the U.S. water infrastructure more than 50 years old, the need to upgrade the systems that collect, transport, and treat water is critical. Our national reach and expertise give us a significant advantage as investment in this area accelerates.

As you can see on the slide, we have strategically focused on two key areas, water transmission and water quality, the fastest growing segments of the over $100 billion U.S. water ecosystem. In addition to a robust funding backdrop, the market also remains very fragmented, with significant runway for further growth through value accretive acquisitions, enabling us to leverage our unmatched scale, connected portfolio, and proven growth capabilities. Our water infrastructure platform is also closely connected to our leading aggregates, cementitious, and road platforms.

Over 80% of the products we produce in our water business consume aggregates and cementitious materials. Since over 85% of roads require water management systems, the strength of our water platform reinforces the benefits of our connected portfolio and shared customer base.

Turning now to slide 14, in the water quality space, we are pleased to announce the expansion of our existing water infrastructure offering. With an agreement to acquire Axius Water, a leading provider of water quality and nutrient removal solutions in North America for approximately $700 million. This acquisition will further strengthen our existing position as a leading water infrastructure player in the United States.

With a strong, experienced management team and best-in-class customer-centric design and engineering capabilities, it is an excellent fit and highly complementary to our existing water platform. Integrating Axius into our connected portfolio will enhance our customer offering and drive significant commercial, operational, and self-supply synergies. It will also strengthen our IP portfolio across the water value chain through its extensive R&D capabilities. Subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, the transaction is expected to complete in the second quarter of the year.

We will keep you updated as that progresses. Overall, our agreement to acquire Axius Water, along with a further eight value accretive acquisitions completed in the year to date, demonstrates the continued build-out of our connected portfolio and our commitment to allocating capital into attractive high-growth markets. I will now ask Nancy to take you through why we believe our superior strategy will continue to deliver industry-leading growth and value creation for our shareholders.

Thanks, Jim. Hello, everyone. As you can see here on slide 16, we believe our unmatched scale and connected portfolio delivers higher and more consistent long-term growth. As the number one infrastructure player in North America, we benefit from increased exposure to publicly funded construction, which is less volatile and more predictable compared to other areas of construction.

We've built leading positions in attractive high-growth markets aligned with three secular mega trends, transportation, water, and re-industrialization, which together represent one of the most compelling growth opportunities in decades. We drive performance excellence through a culture of continuous improvement, replicated at scale across each of our 4,000 locations. You can see this in our first quarter performance; with further margin expansion driven by the operational improvements and strategic growth CapEx investments we've made across our business.

Supported by our strong balance sheet and cash generation capabilities, we expect to have approximately $40 billion of financial capacity over the next five years to invest for future growth and deliver further returns to our shareholders. Our fully connected offering across aggregates, cementitious, roads, and water also enables us to become more deeply embedded with our customers, driving higher pull-through demand for our essential materials and capturing a greater share of wallet on construction projects.

It also results in lower capital intensity and a more variable cost base, enabling us to adapt quickly to any challenges that come our way while maximizing growth, cash generation, and return on capital. Combined with our unmatched scale, the connected nature of our portfolio provides us with superior growth opportunities, multiple avenues to grow both organically and through acquisitions.

We have a strong recurring M&A pipeline and the ability to deliver enhanced synergies supported by our proven growth capabilities. In fact, when we look at our track record of synergy delivery in recent years, we typically achieve a 2x-2.5x reduction in our entry multiple, which really highlights the value we can create for our shareholders. A recent example of this is our 2024 acquisition of the Hunter Cement Plant in Texas, which has delivered synergies well ahead of our original expectations and our typical run rate. This was driven by operational improvements, increased self-supply, and logistics optimization.

Similarly, although earlier in the integration process, our 2025 acquisition of Eco Material is also performing strongly, with some good early wins on synergy delivery. Overall, our unmatched scale and connected portfolio enables us to deliver higher and more consistent long-term growth.

On slide 17, you can see the consistency of our performance over the last decade. In addition to growing our top line, we have delivered 15% compound annual growth in adjusted EBITDA, approximately 110 basis points of average annual margin expansion, and 18% compound annual growth in diluted earnings per share. Our track record across each of these financial metrics demonstrates our ability to deliver consistent long-term growth and performance. As you can see, from a total shareholder return perspective, the story is just as compelling.

Over the same timeframe, we've generated a compound annual total shareholder return of 19%, highlighting our position as a leading compounder of capital and a powerful platform for shareholder value creation.

Thanks, Nancy. Before I provide an update on our financial expectations for the full year, let me share our latest thoughts on the outlook across our markets. Onto slide 19, first to transportation, where the demand backdrop is robust, supported by the continued rollout of federal funding through the IIJA, where approximately 50% of highway funds are yet to be deployed. State-level funding is also strong, with 2026 DOT budgets up 6% on the prior year.

In fact, 2026 is expected to be a record year for investment in transportation infrastructure, which bodes well for our business, given our unmatched scale and market-leading position. We remain encouraged by the progress being made in Congress regarding a multi-year reauthorization of highway funding, with continued bipartisan support for increased infrastructure investment in the years ahead.

In our international business, we expect robust demand and infrastructure to continue, supported by significant investment from government and EU funding programs. We also expect to see continued demand for water infrastructure, with strong growth projected in the areas of transmission and water quality. In reindustrialization, we expect continued strong demand for a large-scale manufacturing and data center investment in both the U.S. and our international markets.

With the benefits of our unmatched scale and connected customer offering, we are well-positioned for growth in this area going forward. In the residential sector, we expect repair and remodel demand in the U.S. to remain resilient, while new build activity remains subdued as a result of ongoing affordability challenges.

As we have said in the past, this is not a demand issue, and we believe the long-term fundamentals in this market remain very attractive, supported by favorable demographics and significant levels of underbuild. In summary, the overall trend is positive for our business, with our strategic focus on growing infrastructure mega trends and the benefits of the CRH Winning Way leaving us uniquely positioned to capitalize on the strong growth opportunities that lie ahead.

Turning now to slide 20. Against that backdrop, we have reaffirmed our financial guidance for 2026, reflecting a strong start to the year as well as the net impact of divestitures and acquisitions agreed in the year to date.

Assuming normal seasonal weather patterns for the remainder of the year and no further major dislocations in the geopolitical or macroeconomic environment, we expect full-year adjusted EBITDA to be between $8.1 billion and $8.5 billion. Net income between $3.9 billion and $4.1 billion and diluted earnings per share between $5.60 and $6.05, representing another strong year of growth and value creation for CRH.

It's still very early in the construction season but we will update you on our expectations as the year unfolds and as the season gets fully underway across our markets. That concludes our presentation today. I will now hand you back to the moderator to coordinate the Q&A session of our call.

Thank you. As a reminder to those on the phone, press star one if you would like to ask a question. We will now pause briefly while we register questions in the Q&A roster. We'll take our first question from Adrian Huerta with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Congrats on the results. My question is just if you can provide a further color on your guidance for this year, especially after these transactions that you did and the underlying assumption that you have?

Good morning. Good to hear you. I might ask Nancy maybe to come back at the end just on some of the detail, the puts and takes in terms of the full-year guidance. Very pleased this morning to be reaffirming our full-year guidance, which is really reflecting the strong start we've had to the year in Q1.

At this stage of the year, you know, what we look for is that all the key building blocks are really in place early in the season to deliver on the guidance. What we're actually seeing across our markets right now is a positive demand backdrop. We've seen it in the Q1 performance and into March and April with strong early season project activity.

We're seeing good growth across areas such as our roads and reindustrialization, which are performing well. I think, again, the guidance is supported by the continued rollout of the IIJA and very strong local state funding. That's providing us with really good backlogs at this point of the year, which are nicely up year-over-year. In addition, we've had a really good start from a pricing perspective.

Pricing momentum across all our businesses has been good in the first quarter with really strong execution across our commercial teams. We've had a very good winter maintenance program as well this season, and that kind of gives us the confidence in terms of giving the guidance today and for another year of margin expansion. Putting all that together, you know, pleased to reiterate the guidance for the year with an adjusted EBITDA between $8.1 billion and $8.5 billion. Nancy?

Yeah, as Jim said, it's been a really busy start from a portfolio perspective. We've had $1.9 billion of divestments announced and about $900 million of acquisitions. When you think about the scope impact for 2026, we would expect about $200 million of net incremental EBITDA contribution. Just as a reminder, that's unchanged from our previous guidance. With all the ins and outs, the previous guidance had already included the divestment of the construction accessories business. Now that's also reflecting the impact of the further acquisitions and divestments that we announced today.

Yes, thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of David MacGregor with Longbow Research. Please go ahead.

Yes, good morning, everyone. I wanted to ask you about just the, what we're seeing in the energy costs and, with the energy price spike. How are you thinking about the impact on your vertically integrated business model and the extent to which your hedging programs allow you to mitigate that impact?

Morning, David. Clearly we've seen a lot of volatility and spikes in energy in recent months. Maybe first to kind of contextualize it and kind of size it for us, energy is approximately about 5% of our total annual revenues. As we would've said in kind of previous earnings calls, we have a very well managed, a well kind of very mature hedging policy in place, and we typically cover out on a kind of rolling nine-month basis.

What that gives us is really good visibility for our energy costs for the year ahead. Right now, we're kind of focusing on our guidance as we just reaffirmed this morning and really looking for another year of margin expansion. I might ask Randy, though, maybe just to give a bit of a flavor as to, you know, how the teams, the commercial teams are responding in the field to this recent energy spike.

I'd say the teams, certainly we do this on a market by market basis, but a really experienced commercial teams who focus certainly on value delivery. We've dealt with periods of volatility before where we've seen significant spikes and shocks. Our focus really is on a market by market basis, making sure that we recover the increases, any increases we would experience in input costs and fundamentally protecting margins.

It's about advancing those to our expectations that we're calling out even today in terms of growing margins. Additionally, I'd say we've already started kind of midyear price increases in a very targeted way. You know, if that uncertainty continues, we'll continue to evolve that strategy. We're playing off the front foot being very proactive in the area, and the teams have done a terrific job, again, about protecting those margins.

Great. Thank you very much.

Your next question comes from the line of Anthony Pettinari with Citi. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Jim, just circling back to your full year guidance, could you talk a little bit more about sort of the underlying assumptions for aggs and cement, volume and price, that assumptions for the year?

Sure, absolutely, Anthony. Good to hear from you. Listen, I'll ask Randy maybe to give you the specifics by market and volume and prices. As I said, kind of in the opening question, a really good start to the year. Overall strong underlying demand. We see it in our backlogs and a really good start to the year across all the businesses from a pricing perspective. Maybe Randy, if [crosstalk].

Yeah. We called it out in the presentation. Certainly, Q1 is off to a really good start. Volume's up on agg 14%, 14%, cement 10%. I think Jim mentioned it. The volume within the context of our backlogs, that really gives us that six-to-nine-month window in terms of underlying activity levels. We continue to see both bidding activity, importantly what we're winning both on a revenue and then volume standpoint improve year-over-year.

It really reaffirms kind of what we called out at the beginning of the year, which we anticipated from an agg standpoint, low single-digit improvement in volume and supported by mid-single-digit in pricing. Maybe just calling out the price on the agg side.

I think for me and our commercial teams, the most important metric in Q1, because you can get some volatility, is really around the adjusted, mix adjusted pricing, we see that at 5%. That's indicative of what we should expect to see for the full year. That the teams have done a terrific job. It's a metric we lean heavily on at this time of year, good to see the progress there, really supports our mid-single digit price expectations for the full year.

Looking at cement in the Americas in particular, again, good momentum, good backlog, good early start to the season. Certainly you saw the pricing move back a bit in totality. You're gonna see regional differences. We're coming off three exceptional years, strong years in terms of pricing.

When we look at the backlogs, again, I'd say we would expect low single-digit improvement in volumes and low single-digit improvement in pricing as well. Teams are doing a nice job there. On an international basis, Europe and Australia, you know, the weather certainly impacted our business in Europe, in particular in January and February, but it's recovered very nicely in March and April, reflecting good project backlog and underlying demand.

That really gives us visibility in terms of the full year. Again, low single-digit volume improvement in our international platform and mid-single-digit improvement in pricing. You can see that coming through in Q1, a 3% improvement from last year. All the signals are strong and really does iterate and reiterate kind of our focus and the guidance we gave in terms of the demand picture.

Okay. That's very helpful. I'll turn it over.

Your next question comes from the line of Trey Grooms with Stephens. Please go ahead.

Good morning and thanks for taking my question. As typical, you guys continue to be, you know, very active in portfolio optimization. Jim, maybe could you give us a little additional color on the year-to-date divestments? You know, also, how should we be thinking about divestitures or divestments going forward? Thank you.

Sure, Trey. Good to hear you. Yeah, listen, a very good first quarter in terms of portfolio activity, right? We're very pleased with it. I know when we look at portfolio activity at CRH, it's a continuous process. It's not a one-off event, it's something we continuously do. And we announced this morning that our three strategic divestitures of non-core businesses for a total consideration of $1.9 billion.

Now, every capital allocation decision, whether it's on the investment side or the divestment side or grow CapEx in CRH, is always looked at through the lens of trying to maximize shareholder value. Now, these were good businesses that we're divesting of, but we really had the opportunity, we took the opportunity to recycle the proceeds into faster growing and connected platforms.

In this case, taking the opportunity to increase our exposure to the kind of faster growing water infrastructure sector. I think going forward, it should be more of the same, Trey. You should expect us to continue to look for opportunities to optimize our portfolio.

All right. Thank you very much. Good luck.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Michael Dudas with Vertical Research Partners. Please go ahead.

Good morning, Nancy, Jim, Randy.

Good morning.

Morning.

You mentioned, Jim, I think you mentioned in the, in your prepared remarks, a positive outlook on the next reauthorization of IIJA. Maybe you could share your view, or Randy can share a little bit of a view on what you're hearing from your contacts, size of the, of what will be provided, maybe timing. Would there be any issues you think that would disrupt later this year into early next? Any project bidding if there's a continuing resolution or Congress doesn't get its act together before September 30th?

Yeah, good question. I guess maybe take a step back first. Jim called it out in the opening remarks, in terms of the underlying funding with IIJA yet to be deployed. Almost 50% has yet to hit the street. You combine that with really the proactive measures that the states have taken over the last number of years, and you have a really strong view in terms of not only short term, but long-term funding and the demand environment.

I mentioned on the, on the pricing side, what gives us the optimism around the ability to deliver is certainly our backlogs. We are seeing, we track this every week, kind of the quantum that we're bidding continue to grow. We're winning our fair share.

Revenues and overall volumes are improving year-over-year. You're seeing the benefits of both IIJA and the states coming through nicely. I think what we're hearing is there's positive conversations both at the, from the administration and from Congress, both in the House and the Senate. I think fundamentally there's this understanding and appreciation of the need for the investment. It's historically been bipartisan. There's no change in term of conversations that are happening today in and around that.

I think there's also an understanding that there needs to be a meaningful step up in the investment in core infrastructure, which is great for us. When we talk about roads and bridges and highways, that's core infrastructure. There's alignment both in the administration and Congress around that.

I think we're optimistic that a bill will get passed in the second half of the year. In terms of the quantum, I mean, there's numbers all over the place. I think fundamentally what we believe and what we hear is that it'll be a step up, certainly a meaningful step up from what we have today. And I think more importantly is the underlying understanding that we need to have that kind of level of investment. I guess to your question, if they can't reach a new piece of legislation, we've been here before, we go into what they call continuing resolution.

I think what would be interesting about that is that we're coming off peak levels of investment in terms of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a significant step up in 2026 from 2025. You're coming from record levels that will continue into 2027. That gives us a lot of surety and more importantly, our customers, the states, a lot of surety in terms of not only volume and demand in 2026, but into 2027 as well. Again, I think there's great support, good momentum and conversations. All those things will lead one way or the other to higher level investment and good outlook for our business.

Excellent, Randy. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Colin Sheridan with Davy. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Good morning, guys. You had covered off the energy side pretty well on the cost front. I just wonder if you'd maybe give us an update on the more general cost environment and maybe an update on the winter fill program as well. Thanks.

Yeah, sure, Colin. Good morning. Listen, as we said in February, really have continued to see it, we're seeing inflation in other cost items beyond energy also. It's mainly in the same areas, again, in terms of labor, raw materials, maintenance, and subcontractors. Again, overall, we're continuing to expect kind of mid-single digit inflation in 2026 across those categories. Now, that really highlights the importance of the continued price momentum that we've been touching on earlier in the call as well, you know. That together gives us that, you know, outlook of margin expansion for the year.

In terms of the winter fill program this year in 2026, yeah, if we take a step back first, it is one of our key competitive advantage that we have as part of our roads business, and it is unique to CRH. You know, our off-season storage capability at scale. You know, we have the ability, and we do, we store about half our annual liquid requirement, we accumulated off-season. We've built up that capacity over several decades at this point in time.

It's really is one of the benefits of having that scale in our road business and our connected portfolio. What does it give us? It gives us kind of two key strategic advantage, right? Firstly, is on the procurement side, right?

We have the ability to acquire at scale, off-season, you know, with good procurement advantages, and we'll get certainty of costs before we head into the season. It also gives us your security of supply, right? You know, in certain parts of our business, you have a kind of limited enough paving season that runs from about now to Thanksgiving. It's important that we have the product available to meet the kind of backlogs and demand we have, you know.

This year we've had a very well-executed winter full program. We are exactly where we want to be right now as the season kind of shifts into top gear, and we're well-positioned for another strong year of growth in our roads business in 2026.

That's great. Thank you.

We have time for one more question, and that question comes from Kathryn Thompson with Thompson Research Group. Please go ahead.

Thank you for taking my question today and for the details you provided and the prepared commentary and the Q&A today. As we close today's call, just one follow-up, really more on getting further clarification and color, more importantly, on your acquisitions year to date. As you think about the divestitures, which were, as you said, non-core, and then the addition of Axius, how does the current pipeline of acquisitions look? Maybe give a little bit more color of how that fits into the broad strategy that you outlined in your Investor Day last September. Thank you very much.

Sure, Kathryn. Absolutely. Yeah, listen, we've had a good start to the year in Q1, right? From an M&A perspective, with nine acquisitions announced for a total consideration of $900 million. Really, they're spread across the four connected platforms: across aggregates, cementitious, roads, and water. All of these platforms, you know, they're beneficiaries of large and growing infrastructure mega trends that we called out on our Investor Day. Now, maybe first, just before we talk about Axius Water, just briefly to give an overview of our kind of water infrastructure platform.

For us, it's a highly attractive and a core growth platform. It operates in high growth markets, which are supported by very strong secular tailwinds. It's also a sector with very significant investment needs, particularly in the U.S., after decades of underinvestment in this particular space.

It's a sector which has robust public funding backdrop. Now, over the last 50 years, we've been building out a leading position in the water infrastructure place, primarily for us, focusing on two key areas: around transmission and water quality. Now, this morning we announced the acquisition of Axius Water, so maybe looking at that.

It's an excellent fit for existing water infrastructure business, and it's really consistent with our connected water strategy and kind of strengthens our customer offering in the water quality area in particular. What it does is make us more deeply embedded with our customers. It's increasing our share of wallet on water infrastructure projects, and particularly on Axius Water.

From a synergy perspective, Kathryn, there's really good opportunity primarily from the commercial side, but also on the operational and in terms of self-supply synergies across our connected portfolio by being able to supply across some of the other platforms into Axius as well. Now, maybe the last part of the question, I think the pipeline right now, it's strong, Kathryn, right? I think, again, with our unmatched scale and the connected portfolio, we have significant optionality for where we deploy capital. You've seen that over the last 12 months, right?

Where we've continued to invest across each of the four platforms. In the U.S., in terms of aggregates, we announced the deal of North American Aggregates last year. The deal last year was Eco Material, cementitious deal towards in September 2025. Talley Construction in the roads business last year.

In terms of the water platform, we did the investment in VODA.ai and now the Axius Water deal. The pipeline's strong right now. What we're doing consistently is that we're continuing to build backlogs of optionality across each of those four platforms. You know, again, every capital allocation decision will be looked at through the lens of maximizing shareholder value. Over the next five years, with an estimated $40 billion of the financial capacity, we're really well-positioned to continue to deliver growth and value creation by continuing to deploy that capital across those four growth platforms and regions.

Great. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Kathryn. Well, that is all we have time for today. Thank you for all your attention. As always, if you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to contact our investor relations team. We look forward to updating you again in July when we will report our results for the second quarter of 2026. Thank you, and have a good day, and stay safe. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation, and you may now disconnect.